EC Dahls Eiendom: Reduces CO2 Emissions, Waste and Costs Through Reuse

EC Dahls Eiendom Eiendom is the leading real estate company in Trondheim city, and offers premises for both private and public players. Moving in and out of business premises often requires adaptation and relocation of material resources in the form of building materials, fixtures and furniture. Therin lies a great potential for reducing both waste and costs.

Vi har intervjuet Anette Vinje som er ansvarlig for ombruksprosjektet med Loopfront i EC Dahls Eiendom om hvordan de, som eiendomsselskap, satser på sirkulært.

We have interviewed Anette Vinje who is responsible for the reuse project with Loopfront. Read how EC Dahls Eiendom, as a real estate company, invests to become circular.

Bets on Circular Economy

You have got off to a good start with mapping materials in Loopfront for reuse in several of your premises, what was your motivation for transitioning into a circular economy?

During the first couple of months, we have already mapped almost 10,000 materials.

We got ISO-certified in 2021, as a result of which we have chosen to focus on a circular economy. The first year we focused on waste and energy, and now we have set goals for reuse. This came in stronger with the ISO certification, and we have intensified our work with environmental policy: "actively contributing to environmentally friendly urban and real estate development".

EC Dahls Eiendom is a large real estate company in Trondheim, with the goal of reducing the environmental impact faster than we are required by the authorities. Among other things, we want to gain a high level of environmental expertise and reduce the environmental impact in the organization, with suppliers and partners in addition to our tenants.

Among other things, we want to provide customers with great alternatives that make it easier to decide on environmentally sound choices, and thus Loopfront became an important tool.

We want to show our customers and partners the consequences of the choices they make.

More Reuse With New Tenants

As a real estate company, you rent out premises to several players in Trondheim, how does the process of adapting the premises to the various tenants look in practice?

The property manager looks at a floor plan together with the tenant. We have our own architects and interior architects who customize the premises to the tenants' needs with a basic standard for what we deliver when it comes to ceilings, walls, ceilings, floors and ventilation.

What potential do you see for reducing construction waste in connection with changes between tenants?

Mange har en forestilling om at når man skal inn i nytt lokale skal alt være nytt. Vi har for eksempel sett at et gulv som har potensiell levetid på 25 år skiftes ut etter kun 6 år. Det varierer hvor lenge leietakerne blir i lokalet, men før var det vanlig med en kontrakt på 10 år. Leietid i kontraktene blir derimot kortere og kortere, og noen er nede i 5 eller 3 år. Statlige bedrifter har oftere lengre leieperspektiv enn private aktører. Kortere leieperioder kan føre til oftere utskiftning av materialer. 

Many people have a notion that when you move into a new space, everything has to be new. For example, we have seen that a floor with a potential lifespan of 25 years is replaced after only 6 years. How long the tenants stay in the office space varies, but earlier it has been common practice to have a 10 year comntract. However, there is a trend towards shorter and shorter contracts, and some are only for 5 or even 3 years. State owned companies generally request longer rental contracts than private actors. Shorter rental periods can lead to more frequent replacement of materials.

Therefore, it is a very large potential for reducing construction waste. We want to make both ourselves and the tenants aware of savings in the form of finances, CO2 emissions and reduction of landfill. We see that we get more attention from the tenants by showing what the savings opportunities are.

Tools for Surveying Made the Process More Effektive

Have you leveragesd reused materials in any previous projects? And how did this compare to using Loopfront as a tool?

We have of course carried out projects where existing materials are reused, but it was not done in a systematic way, and often it has been due to finances, not with a focus on environmental savings. In recent processes, we have realized that we need to use more of what we have, and we have seen the need to have a tool and have an overview of materials, and we therefore found Loopfront.

After starting to use Loopfront, the process has accelerated, and we have gained more systematic awareness of reuse.

We have gained very positive experiences even though we are in the starting pit, and we have used the platform on several major projects. Loopfront is a very good tool to start reaching our goals.

We also see that reuse means that we can challenge ourselves to become more creative. for example, one can make a big difference just by replacing parts of a floor or painting wall fronts.

We will be able to show the tenants savings that have been made and that reuse can look cool.

As of today, it is the tenant's task to maintain floors etc. inside their space, but we can show them how to maintain the materials to extend the service life.

Does your company want to reuse more interior or building materials? Book a meeting with one of our circular advisors to get a demo of the platform.